Tag: food

Recipes

Recipe: Fat-Free Whole Wheat Pancakes [Vegan, HCLF]

Miche

Photo Feb 28, 9 16 58 AM

I came up with this recipe years ago, and I’ve never gotten tired of it: I still find myself making it on the weekends. It’s a healthy start to your day, and is easy to dress up as you please–I usually opt for chocolate chips, with banana slices and maple syrup on top!

It’s also easy to make your own pancake mix for this: what I like to do is mix up a tupperware-full of the dry ingredients, and use that throughout the weekend. That way I can just roll out of bed, add the wet ingredients, and start cooking the pancakes right away!

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Makes 4 medium sized pancakes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup soy milk
  • Add-ins: Chocolate chips, nuts, berries, cinnamon, etc.

Directions:

1. In a small to medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.

2. Pour vanilla, soymilk, and water into a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Whisk until lumps are gone, and stir in addins if desired.

Note: I often find myself adding more liquid at this step as I like a thinner batter sometimes, but the thickness is really a matter of preference: they turn out great regardless!

3. Coat skillet with cooking spray, and set to medium heat. Once the skillet is hot, pour the batter until your desired pancake size is reached (generally around 1/3 cup; I, however, made a giant pancake). Drop your add-ins like chocolate chips evenly into the batter.

4. Cook until bubbles have appeared and popped on surface, then flip to other side. Cook until browned.

5. Serve with your favorite toppings.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Miche

Recipes

Creamy, Low Fat Broccoli Soup Recipe [Vegan, HCLF]

Miche

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Calling all soup lovers! If you like broccoli and cheese soup but don’t want the dairy or processed fake cheeses, this recipe is for you. (Especially my fellow high carb, low fat vegans!)

Although we don’t get to experience much of a real winter where I am in California, I still can’t help but love soup season. I’ve been experimenting with spicy lentil, roasted tomato, and sweet potato soups over the last few weeks, but I keep coming back to this broccoli one. Yukon gold potato lends the soup its creaminess, and the cheesy flavor comes from nutritional yeast, along with onions, garlic, and a few cashews. It’s also flexible and fun to customize: you can add whatever veggies you have on hand, and vary amounts as you please and it’ll still turn out great.

It’s packed with nutrients (and even quite high in protein!), it’s quick and easy to make, and it’s especially delicious when paired with toasted sourdough!

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Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium yukon gold potato (about 200g)
  • 2-3 cups broccoli pieces
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 yellow or white onion
  • 4 stalks of celery
  • 4-5 large mushrooms
  • 2-3 handfuls of kale or spinach
  • 1 tsp vegetable broth powder (or a vegetable bouillon cube, or veggie broth)
  • 2 tbsp cashews (omit for lower fat)
  • 3-4 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup unsweetened almond milk or other non-dairy milk
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Toasted bread (especially sourdough) for serving

Instructions:

  1. Boil or microwave potato until soft.
  2. Roughly chop the garlic, onion, celery, and mushrooms. They’ll all be blended later, so just chop them enough so they have some surface area for cooking.
  3. Dry-sauté garlic and onion over medium heat until the garlic toasts slightly, then add the water, broccoli, celery, mushrooms, potato, and kale or spinach. Simmer until soft.
  4. Remove from heat, and add to blender along with cashews, nutritional yeast, and almond milk. Blend until smooth and creamy. Add more water and/or almond milk as necessary to get soup to the consistency you prefer.

Serve with freshly toasted bread, and enjoy!

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Nutrition information (for half the recipe):

Calories: 250 | Fat: 6g | Carbs: 35g (5.5g fiber) | Protein: 14.5g

Side note: I've been in LOVE with this broth powder. Finally, a broth-maker that is both oil free and lasts indefinitely!
Side note: I’ve been in love with this broth powder since I discovered it a month ago… finally a way to make broth that is both oil free and lasts indefinitely!

(This is cross-posted from my recipe-only blog)

Starch Solution, Years Past: Food & Exercise Diaries

23 Days of Starch Solution!

Miche

2019 Update: See my Instagram for daily posts on my weight loss & body progress, food & recipes, and diet updates. See my Youtube channel for more detailed starch solution/diet updates and before & after photos!

See my Round Two of Starch Solution–a second month of daily food diaries!

Guidelines for my version of the Starch Solution:

  • Center my meals on starch: potatoes, rice, beans, lentils, squash, bulgur, oats, corn, etc.
  • Keep macros around 65-70% carbs, 15-20% protein, and 10-15% fat. (this generally requires protein powder and/or bars for me)
  • Focus on whole foods: avoid flours; no oils
  • Eat more vegetables (currently having small salads with lunch 3-4 days a week and a serving at dinner, but I’d like to get more)
  • No limit on fresh fruits (starch solution guidelines say 4 or fewer servings, but I’m not a fan of that!)
Photo Sep 11, 6 20 47 PM
My lifelong love affair with starch continues! This is a channa masala I made a few days ago

Starting today, 9/15, I’m planning on posting my food diaries of the next 23 days!

Back when I started this blog I would post them everyday, but because I don’t have nearly as much time as I used to, I thought I could instead give you guys snapshots of what I eat every once in awhile. I’ll either do food diary posts that have a day or two each, or do a weekly post with what I ate each day that week.

I’ve been an ethical vegan for a long time now: vegetarian for the last 9 years, 95% vegan for 3 years, and 100% vegan for the last year. Since February, I’ve been dabbling in HCLF (high carb, low fat) veganism on and off, and have been doing pretty well with it since I got back to school three weeks ago. However, I have been eating a bit too much processed food, especially homemade chocolate chip cookies because of too many bakesales and potlucks! Thanks to that and the heaps of stress I’ve been under–applying to grad school while working in 2 labs, doing an honors thesis, and taking a full courseload–my skin hasn’t been too thrilled with me, and my gym performance seems to be suffering.

They're just way too addictive
Dastardly little cookies…

I’ll be visiting my boyfriend in three weeks, so until then, I’m going to try following Dr. McDougall’s Starch Solution principles more closely than I have been. Not only do I already love starches, but his premises make sense to me–and I’m a very cynical/scientific person, so it takes a persuasive argument to get me on board with something like that. I won’t be super strict as I’ll still be including protein bars, Beyond Meat chick’n strips, avocados, and flax seed here and there, but I’m interested to see if I feel and look better eating his way… and I wouldn’t mind losing a pound or two either!

I’m also hoping I can simplify my diet and meal planning, because I’m currently a bit addicted to variety. However, on the weekends I’ll probably bend the guidelines and have some flours in pancakes and whatnot, and experiment with new recipes.

Also, I won’t be counting calories during the day–I’m going to be eating intuitively–but I will write down what I eat so I can put it in Myfitnesspal at the end of the day and maybe post it here! I love data, but I hate planning my day around calories, so this compromise has been working for me.

Thanks for reading!